Thursday, March 18, 2010

What is the purpose of Barkingham Palace?

Hiya Thomas!I was just flying around in Regents square with Alia LotusPetal when I ran across Barkingham Palace. What is this place for? I used to wonder about it alot in my MarleyBone Days and now I have an E-mail, I'm asking you!

Hello Amber!

****UPDATE!! This is now a dungeon! Duelist101 has a great guide you should check out!*****

Barkingham Palace you say? Well, its nothing more than a staging area for Henry Wellingbrook and Quentin Boodington

I think they just wanted to give you a location marker on the map of Regent's Square so you can find Henry since the map to Regent's Square is a little complex.

Just look at that mess! Well, it's nothing compared to the real map of ol' London Town. Check out this map. I've highlighted some areas of interest for you Wizard101 players (you may want to click on this map to make it bigger)

Yup, if you didn't know (which how could you not), a lot of the names for Marleybone come from actual locations in London, England. Why even Marleybone is just an anagram of Marylebone, which is where all the rich peeps live in London.

Digmoore Station is just a play on words for Wigmore. I've never been to London myself, but I know there is a giant transit system called the London Underground and there are stations all along the transit system, so there could easily be a Wigmore Station.

. . . You know, it is kind of funny that they didn't label Barkingham Palace as the Tower of London actually. You don't find beafeaters outside Buckingham Palace as far as I know. (Henry and Quentin are in Beefeater costumes.) They missed a real opportunity for a joke though with the "Royal Mews." AM I RIGHT?

In the end though, I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of the people at KI had played the game Scotland Yard a lot as kids or at least maybe used it as inspiration.

There's a great write up about the game and how to play it here. I think if you read through that thread, you'll see a lot of similarities to how that game plays and the quests for chasing down Meowiarty.

From what I understand, Scotland Yard is an excellent game to play before you plan a trip to London as it helps you get familiar with the map of the place, yeah?

My family comes from England originally. Before he died, my father would tell me about a great great Grandfather of ours that pushed a grocery cart in London. He sold food out of the cart for money. Apparently he signed his name with an X and couldn't write very well. Funny that now years later, I'm over here in the states writing about a game where you chase down a Mr. X in London.

19 comments:

Heather
said...

I could theorize that they wouldn't want to touch on Royal Mews as that could, in this game, have given dignity to cats...which it seems that they did not want to do. I know I am not the only one that has noticed that the people at KI seem to favor dogs over cats. Cats are always made to be the villians in this game...this is probably my biggest complaint on the game. The heroes and good guys are always dogs. Nothing against dogs as I am an equal opportunity animal lover.Also if you have done the Myth level 48 quest then it really becomes apparent that someone hates cats. I mean they make you get a bone from a two-headed cat to give to a two-headed dog...like "yes Fido, eat Fluffy"...*Grrr*Yeah, they made cat mounts, but how dignified is it for a cat to be ridden around on?...though I do have cat mounts...lol. But other than that cats seem to be hated through the game, unfortunately :(

Friendly, did you notice that Jaques (I love that name) the Scratcher has an "XX" on his glove? I mean seriously, it looks like KI interviewed your dad and he told about your great great grandfather signing his name with an "X". Just pointing that out. See everyone in the Spiral.

Notice the timestamp on my most recent post for that thread. I guess we were both thinking about the same things at around the same time!

*******

Grayson mentioned Jaques the Scratcher. That joke seems to have a couple layers. First, it's a reference to Jack the Ripper, but it's also notable that they chose the French form of the name. Between Jaques and Meowiarty, casting French-like cats as villains to English-like dogs is interesting.

Wolf Moonsinger mentioned Oyster cards. While there's a possible double reference there, the primary reference for the Blue Oysters is like al of Zeke's quests; a reference to a band. Oddly enough, while over half of the bands are British, the Blue Oyster Cult is American, and so are the Stray Cats.The Blue Oyster Cult is best known for their song "Don't Fear the Reaper" which is a favorite of many a necromancer... or at least one of my favorite songs! I even use it as my ringtone. (Hmm... the well-loved SNL parody of the making of that song is the origin of the phrase "more cowbell". I wonder if that had anything to do with the making of MooShu?)

Oh, that place. I know, I go by it all the time, it could be GM tower for MB, just a decoration, a gateway to Celestia, etc ... My point is so far its just a big decoration, KI will at some point use it. Its just an nonaccessable wonder zone (Of doom? Maybe?) Hahaha, anyways, might as well wait and see what Barkingham Palace really is while everyone makes their little theories of what it REALLY is.

I'm British and live near London and I'd never heard of Wigmore Street. It's definitely not a well-known place like all the others you mention. And Wolf is right - there isn't a Wigmore station on the Underground.

Personally I reckon Digmoore Station is just a made up name to fit in with the dog theme.

There are beefeaters outside Buckingham Palace so that part is OK.

Also can I just say that the accents of the characters in Marleybone sound pretty awful to an English person!

I grew up playing Scotland Yard, it's an awesome game :) And you're so right, it IS a bit like chasing Meowiarty around London, I'd never noticed that before!

i saw the sherlock holmes movie and he lives on 21 2 B. something street and sherlock bones lives on barker street hmm, i am sensing a coincidence, wait, no that isnt just chance. It ha to be ment to be there

Hmm, somehow I doubt that KI meant to imply that the guards of Barkingham Palace were in the habit of eating the residents of MooShu. Still, if all the animals are sentient, that does present some issues when it comes to obviously non-vegetarian people like the Marleybonians and Grizzleheimar.